Brendan Bender named WHAC ‘Newcomer of the Year’ for Davenport baseball team

Brendan Bender posted a 3-1 record on the bump, but it was his hitting in the middle of the Davenport University lineup that really impressed this spring. Supplied Photo

CALEDONIA -- Brendan Bender made a favorable impression on Davenport University baseball coaches in a hurry.

Bender, who played his high school sports in Grandville, was in the baseball program two seasons at Grand Rapids Community College, igniting the school to back-to-back regional titles. He earned all-conference honors as a freshman and first-team accolades as a sophomore.

At Davenport, in his junior season, he was the Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference (WHAC) Newcomer of the Year and won first-team all-conference honors.

He led the team in batting average (.374), RBI (51), walks (40), doubles (14), triples (2), and home runs (3). His .519 slugging percentage also topped the squad. His fielding percentage was .990.

"He knows the strike zone so well," said Davenport coach Kevin Tidey. "At the end of his summer of his senior (high school) year, he was playing with the (Michigan) Diamonds, and we were starting to see him emerge as a player. We followed him pretty hard the years he was at Grand Rapids Community College.

"I coached a summer collegiate team, so we picked him up and he played for us during the summer. I got to know him as a person and a player."

Tidey could see then how valuable of a player Bender could be for any baseball team.

"He had 40 walks with 16 strikeouts," Tidey said. "He's (almost) 3-to-1 from walks-to-strikeouts. He's one of those guys, he's almost so good at knowing the strike zone that he'll get hung up on a borderline pitch."

Bender's pitching skills also were impressive in his first season at Davenport. He had seven appearances on the mound including five starts, going 3-1 with a 4.32 ERA. He had a 10-inning complete-game shutout victory at Aquinas College.

Bender lettered for three seasons in hockey at Grandville. He was a two-time all-conference pick.

"I watched him play a few times in high school and one of my assistant coaches helped out with Diamonds his senior year," Tidey said. "We were impressed with him on the mound, too. He's probably one of our top pitchers, but we had enough pitching this year that we didn't use him a ton. We used him out of the bullpen just because he's such a good first baseman and so important in the middle of our lineup."

Tidey recalls that at Grand Rapids CC, Bender was used as a pitcher/DH type of player

Brendan Bender has likely worked himself into a larger role on the Davenport pitching staff next spring.Supplied Photo

"His arm was bothering him some, so we were a little cautious of that," Tidey said. "He had probably one of the most memorable pitching performances of the (2014) season when he beat Aquinas 1-0. He was unreal that game."

Tidey won't soon forget the moment.

"He wasn't throwing a ton of his pitches," Tidey said. "With his competitiveness and mindset, there's no way he wants to give the ball to anybody else. That's his whole mindset. That's what impressed us so much about him with Grand Rapids, when they went to the World Series."

GRCC went to the community college NJCAA World Series both seasons they had Bender.

"He started the first game down there and could barely walk," Tidey said. "That's how he is. He's tough and hard-nosed. He has a lot of movement on his pitches. He throws multiple pitches for strikes in different counts. He has a good change-up and a breaking pitch he can throw for strikes."

Davenport finished the season at 42-17 overall and 24-6 in the conference for first place and also won the postseason tournament. Next season looks bright, especially with Bender as a senior.

"Hopefully, he can take us where he left off," Tidey said. "We may have more expectations from him on the mound next year."